Who’s Thankful For What?

I have a love/hate relationship with Thanksgiving.

While I do so love making tonnes and tonnes of food for my family and friends, the idea of sitting around with relatives we barely see (or make any attempt to contact otherwise) and talk about how we’re all thankful for each other is kind of weird. I guess it’s because (as I’ve mentioned in previous posts) that I’ve never really had strong extended family ties so the whole idea of it is strange.

I make it a point to get together with family and dear friends and make a huge meal but I never ask what we’re thankful for. I think we should make it a point to be thankful for things all year long, not just while Aunt Ann is passing the sweet potatoes. By the time pie is served, we’ve all forgotten what we’re thankful for and by the next day, we’ve reverted back to the bitter bees who don’t appreciate the life we’ve been given or those we have to share it with.

There are alot of things we should be thankful for but aren’t, things like oppurtunities and chances. So many of us waste oppurtunities because of momentary distractions or because we’re straight up afraid to fail. The world would be alot better if we saw the chance to succeed as a victory of it’s own. Many people don’t even have the chance to try and yet so many of us throw away a chance thinking we can revisit it once we’re done playing around. However, oppurtunity rarely knocks again and NEVER leaves a voicemail. We should be thankful for each step we take in the journey and not focus on the end result. I know I used to be terrible for making excuses for why I didn’t just take steps because it was a long shot or because what if I wasn’t good enough. Now I know that I wasted alot of time that could have been spent succeeding. People should be thankful for the chance to try, instead of afraid to fail.

Family is another thing we take for granted. Family doesn’t necessarily mean blood ties, but the people in your life who make your life better. So many people don’t appreciate their children until they’ve grown and have lives of their own or their spouses until they’ve left. We don’t appreciate the friends who held our hands until you forgot to hold theirs and they moved on. Why wait until Thanksgiving to tell people that you love and appreciate them?  We live in a generation of self-absorption, why not pull yourself back a bit and take a moment to reflect on the people who have helped you get where you want to be?

I am guilty of this myself. I tend to be unappreciative of my job, despite it providing me financial security and focusing on how much it sucks. I have other goals, but I let things get in the way and I don’t think I show my family and friends enough love, so I need to take my own advice. I think we’d be a society of happy people if we took chances for ourselves while choosing to surround ourselves with the people who truly have our back. Then we could be thankful for the food on Thanksgiving instead of reciting the same old greeting card sentiment around the table.  After all, family, friends, and life are every day, but we can only enjoy stuffing three times a year at the most. So, let’s take the oppurtunity to enjoy it.